Now that we have likely completed the five stages of grief for our FB season (the SJSU game was "acceptance" for me), it's time to turn our attention to a sport that I hope is on the upswing arc and that is our Men's Basketball team in Year 2 of Jeff Linder. There are reasons for excitement and areas of concern, but at minimum I think this program is very interesting right now and I really encourage everyone to jump on board.
The Pokes are picked T-8th, which on the one hand is a slap in the face, but on the other hand is also really a reflection of what appears to be the strongest MWC since 2012-13 and arguably as strong as it has ever been. The MWC should have 3 NCAA bids and probably 2 NIT bids. (5) top 75-ish teams puts the league in elite company and I see a lot of parallels between Shyatt's second season (the aforementioned 12-13) and Linder's second season (with the obvious difference that I don't expect DuSell to play Soccer with someone's face outside the Buck). Along those lines, I really think we are going to see the payout in Year 3 or 4. This is another building season with a young team (yes, a lot of players come back but everyone got an extra year so we are still young relatively).
Beyond conference play, Linder has scheduled one of the more challenging non-conference schedules I have seen the Pokes play. This team could go .500 overall and be Much better than some previous teams with winning records. I hope it pays off long term.
I won't make predictions (Pokes 19-16? No? Ok.), but I think that we should be prepared that this year's record may not reflect the growth we are seeing.
Before we dive into this year's roster and potential rotations, can I just point out what a solid job Jeff Linder has done in very challenging circumstances to even get us to the point where 8th feels like disrespect. I won't re-hash everything about the AE era, but the recruiting misses during AE's era are almost astounding when you look back on it. The 2018 class with 8 signees and not a single one of them a high level MWC player and none of them on the roster 2 years later is an absolute program killer. Linder had to take over a program at rock freaking bottom. Only 4 players and about that many fans still attending. He goes out and in his first class, in a matter of months, does the following (not in order):
1. Re-recruits the 4 top players from the previous year. This was no small feat. First of all, he had to correctly identify who to target (and mea culpa, I thought we would miss TJ Taylor but not so much) and bring them back. While Thompson probably wasn't that hard, I am certain that Maldo would have had plenty of options if he chose to transfer and Foster as well. Marble, even though he transferred a year later, may have been the most impressive job as he was a kid that Linder basically backed away from when he was at UNC and Marble got hurt in HS. He had to overcome that negative history and at that point in time Marble might have had almost as many prospects as Maldo to transfer (and a year later transferred to a very solid up and coming WCC program).
2. Signs Marcus Williams - Ok, yes he transferred a year later..to a SEC school where he will be in the rotation. We need to hold on to guys, but none of AE's recruits were going to get poached by SEC schools as underclassmen. That is some serious talent evaluation.
3. Signs Graham Ike - Maybe we got a little lucky because he was hurt in High School, but Linder had built the relationship over time and recognized the talent (evaluation again). Before he got injured he had P5/A-10 level offers so it's not like he was an under the radar recruit. He certainly could have gone to a high level prep school and probably had plenty of P5 offers a year later, but Linder got him to Laramie (much, much more on Graham later on).
4. Signs Xavier DuSell - Obviously another player that he had recruited to UNC (dear lord was UNC going to be a monster in the Big Sky if he stayed and they might win it this year anyway) and one that was a very solid recruit (plenty of mid to high mid major offers).
5. Signs Jeremiah Oden - Our highest rated recruit on paper and it's easy to see why. Big time athlete, yet skilled. More on him later as well.
6. Filled out the roster with Jeffries, Nelson, and Lamont - Lamont didn't work out, but overall that is an amazing hit rate for a late signing period recruiting class made during COVID.
Just to recap, without being able to travel and schedule visits, working at a new school, and recruiting to a smoking crater of a program, Linder landed more high level talent in a couple of months than AE did in 4.5 years. That's not an exaggeration. Those (4) guys are all legit high MWC caliber talent. I do have some questions about recruiting since that initial surge, but I think we have to give Linder the benefit of the doubt.
See next post for the rest of the preview.
The Pokes are picked T-8th, which on the one hand is a slap in the face, but on the other hand is also really a reflection of what appears to be the strongest MWC since 2012-13 and arguably as strong as it has ever been. The MWC should have 3 NCAA bids and probably 2 NIT bids. (5) top 75-ish teams puts the league in elite company and I see a lot of parallels between Shyatt's second season (the aforementioned 12-13) and Linder's second season (with the obvious difference that I don't expect DuSell to play Soccer with someone's face outside the Buck). Along those lines, I really think we are going to see the payout in Year 3 or 4. This is another building season with a young team (yes, a lot of players come back but everyone got an extra year so we are still young relatively).
Beyond conference play, Linder has scheduled one of the more challenging non-conference schedules I have seen the Pokes play. This team could go .500 overall and be Much better than some previous teams with winning records. I hope it pays off long term.
I won't make predictions (Pokes 19-16? No? Ok.), but I think that we should be prepared that this year's record may not reflect the growth we are seeing.
Before we dive into this year's roster and potential rotations, can I just point out what a solid job Jeff Linder has done in very challenging circumstances to even get us to the point where 8th feels like disrespect. I won't re-hash everything about the AE era, but the recruiting misses during AE's era are almost astounding when you look back on it. The 2018 class with 8 signees and not a single one of them a high level MWC player and none of them on the roster 2 years later is an absolute program killer. Linder had to take over a program at rock freaking bottom. Only 4 players and about that many fans still attending. He goes out and in his first class, in a matter of months, does the following (not in order):
1. Re-recruits the 4 top players from the previous year. This was no small feat. First of all, he had to correctly identify who to target (and mea culpa, I thought we would miss TJ Taylor but not so much) and bring them back. While Thompson probably wasn't that hard, I am certain that Maldo would have had plenty of options if he chose to transfer and Foster as well. Marble, even though he transferred a year later, may have been the most impressive job as he was a kid that Linder basically backed away from when he was at UNC and Marble got hurt in HS. He had to overcome that negative history and at that point in time Marble might have had almost as many prospects as Maldo to transfer (and a year later transferred to a very solid up and coming WCC program).
2. Signs Marcus Williams - Ok, yes he transferred a year later..to a SEC school where he will be in the rotation. We need to hold on to guys, but none of AE's recruits were going to get poached by SEC schools as underclassmen. That is some serious talent evaluation.
3. Signs Graham Ike - Maybe we got a little lucky because he was hurt in High School, but Linder had built the relationship over time and recognized the talent (evaluation again). Before he got injured he had P5/A-10 level offers so it's not like he was an under the radar recruit. He certainly could have gone to a high level prep school and probably had plenty of P5 offers a year later, but Linder got him to Laramie (much, much more on Graham later on).
4. Signs Xavier DuSell - Obviously another player that he had recruited to UNC (dear lord was UNC going to be a monster in the Big Sky if he stayed and they might win it this year anyway) and one that was a very solid recruit (plenty of mid to high mid major offers).
5. Signs Jeremiah Oden - Our highest rated recruit on paper and it's easy to see why. Big time athlete, yet skilled. More on him later as well.
6. Filled out the roster with Jeffries, Nelson, and Lamont - Lamont didn't work out, but overall that is an amazing hit rate for a late signing period recruiting class made during COVID.
Just to recap, without being able to travel and schedule visits, working at a new school, and recruiting to a smoking crater of a program, Linder landed more high level talent in a couple of months than AE did in 4.5 years. That's not an exaggeration. Those (4) guys are all legit high MWC caliber talent. I do have some questions about recruiting since that initial surge, but I think we have to give Linder the benefit of the doubt.
See next post for the rest of the preview.
